Observations after 2 weeks

[Dubaruba]

After two weeks driving my new Focus EV in the relatively cold, wet and hilly Seattle area, I have a few observations to share:

First, I love this car. It drives great and is fun to drive, even when I am focusing on economy. My commute is 16 miles round trip, so I could drive any way I want, but I'm continually trying to improve my efficiency. I've tried different screens for feedback, and depending on the conditions, I still may choose different ones.

My wH/mile has consistently gone down since I've been driving this car, but I have found that sometimes its out of my control. First, I didn't spend 40k on a car so I could shiver all the way to work, so I am running the heat. Still, I've managed to get my average under 300 wH/mile and it's still coming down.

Sometimes, no matter how well I drive, the wH/mile is out of my control. In truly stop and go traffic, the idling and accelerating decreases my efficiency. Also, some trips are just more uphill than others. What I CAN control is my overall score. I've consistently increased my driving score, and I've had trips where I average over 350 wH/mile where my score is 95. I'm trying to not get hung up on any single measure of efficiency, but instead just to continue playing around.

Of course, I find it's easy to get too hung up on all the efficiency feedback. The bottom line is, this is my car. It's how I get around and I enjoy driving it. I love never having to go to the gas station and I figure I'm saving over $5,000 in fuel costs over the 3 year term of the lease - not to mention savings in maintenance.

So glad to be part of this community and loving every minute I get to drive in my Focus EV!

 

[Rwbill]

Hi Duba, congratulations. I enjoy this car immensely also. I have found the same thing also, that I cannot control the WHr usage. I think this has become more evident as morning temperatures began sinking through the 50s to the 40s, and so far even a few in the 30s. I have considerable interstate driving so even in summer my consumption was often around 260 WHr per mile compared to others who had around 240 WHr. Really that is splitting hairs.

Now with colder outside temperatures my rate is up in 330s - 350 WHr per mile. Even in the summer it would initially start at 500 and quickly count down to the 200s and settle down. Now it's staying in the low to mid 300s in the cold weather.

This does not really bother me, and we discussed this in an adjacent thread a little more.

In a day I seem to use about 12 KWh+ a day now compared to 9.4 - 10 KWh per round trip in more ideal weather. Still, this difference is not a big deal unless someone's daily commute is on the edge of range and cannot charge or precondition at work or at the turn around point.

Glad to have you aboard.